Phase Ten
by chocolatequeen
Summary: When Sark and Sloane become partners, the Alias world is thrown upside down. Who can be trusted? Who can't? Who knows?


Title: Phase Ten, 1/10 Author: Chocolatequeen Genre: Action Rating: PG-13 Disclaimer: Alias is owned by JJ Abrams, Bad Robot Productions, ABC, et al Spoilers: Anything up to Phase One Summary: When Sark and Sloane become partners, the Alias world is thrown upside down. Who can be trusted? Who can't? Who knows?  
  
Sydney paced the hallway of the Joint Task Offices. "Come on Will, pick up," she muttered into her cell phone.  
  
"Is something wrong, Syd?" Vaughn quietly asked from behind her.  
  
"No. well, I can't get a hold of Will. I know I told him to take Francie and get out of town, but he should have taken his phone," she fretted, glaring at her phone.  
  
"Maybe he's just out of signal reach. Why don't you try him again in a few minutes?" he suggested.  
  
"You're probably right," she said with a sigh. "So what's on the agenda right now?"  
  
"Well, unless I miss my guess, Kendall is about to call us in for debriefing."  
  
As if on cue, Kendall stuck his head out the door of the meeting room "Okay people, this isn't a punch bowl champagne break, we've got work to do here." Reluctantly, the agents milling about the hallway filed into the room and sat down at the table.  
  
"Punch bowl?" someone near Sydney and Vaughn muttered. "More like coffee dregs--especially if we're going to have to sit through another meeting." Vaughn gave the perpetrator a sideways glance as Kendall shot off a warning look at their little cluster of agents.  
  
"Let's get started. Terry, update us on the status of the Alliance cells." Kendall motioned to a nervous young man wearing horn-rimmed glasses and carrying a flip chart.  
  
"Nothing says 'geek' like flip charts. It's like a pocket protector thing." This time the wise-crack was a little bit louder, and several people turned their heads to see who it was.  
  
"Would you hush?" Vaughn hissed. "We do not need to get in trouble, we'll be stuck here all night."  
  
"If we're done with the chit-chat, I have a few pieces of information you might be interested in hearing." Everyone stared at flip-chart boy, startled at the strident tone of voice he used. "Ready? Good. Just to clear things up, I may be an analyst now, but I am field trained and I've seen my share of action. Flip chart or no, I'm not your typical geek. My name is Rian, and I'll be taking over the CIA side of the Joint Task Operations."  
  
"Now, getting down to business. Each of the partners' homes were raided along with Alliance headquarters. We managed to bring 8 into custody, 3 did not make it out alive."  
  
"Wait a minute," someone interrupted. "I thought there were 12 partners, that's only 11."  
  
"Thank you for pointing out the obvious McCormick," Rian smirked. He was about to continue when Sydney spoke up.  
  
"It's Sloane, isn't it? He's still missing."  
  
"Yes Agent Bristow, Arvin Sloane has been missing for almost a week now. The only assumption we can make from this intel is that he double-crossed the Alliance and is now carrying out some plan of his own. What that might be, we don't know yet.  
  
"What we do know is that we have several hundred Alliance agents in custody. Here in LA we have at least 5 dozen men and women who worked at SD-6. Currently they're in holding cells, the interrogations start tomorrow."  
  
"Interrogations? What good will that do, they think they're loyal CIA agents," Sydney pointed out with a frown.  
  
"Yes, Agent Bristow, we know. However, these agents went on sensitive intelligence gathering missions for the Alliance, whether they knew it was for the Alliance or not. We want that intelligence. Most likely the agents will cooperate willingly, once they realize they were not in fact working for their country. I don't imagine the "debriefings," if you would prefer, will take more than a few days.  
  
"Now then, I believe that concludes this meeting, unless Mr. Kendall had something he wanted to add. No? Then you're dismissed. Report back here tomorrow at 9:00 for the celebration."  
  
Silently, the agents rose and left the room. As they were leaving, an annoying Nokia ring echoed in the now empty room. Sydney glanced down at her phone and picked it up with a smile. "Will? Yeah, I'm fine. Are you okay? Yeah? Good. And Francie? Great. Hey Will. we did it, SD-6 is gone. Yeah, I'll tell you about it when I get home. Bye."  
  
"Hey Bristow, we're waiting on you," Weiss called from the door. "You know, the big 'SD-6 is gone' celebration party? It won't be the same without you."  
  
"Yeah Weiss, I'll be there in just a sec," she replied quietly and hit the "End" button on her phone. "So where are we going?" she asked brightly as she walked out the door.  
  
"Oh, your dad invited us all over to his place. said to make ourselves at home while he gets checked out by the medics." At her disbelieving stare, he chuckled and said, "No really. we're just going to the bar down the street for a few beers. The real celebration will be here tomorrow, but believe me when I say that you'll have a lot more fun tonight. The CIA's idea of "celebration" is giving everyone an extra dose of paperwork."  
  
"Sounds like fun," Sydney replied with a grin. "So who's car are we taking?"  
  
"We can take mine," Vaughn volunteered. "I'll swing by in the morning and pick you two up for work." Sydney grinned then laughed out loud at the thought. "What's so funny?" he asked.  
  
"That just sounds so. normal! Do you realize that yesterday that would have been completely out of the question? Now you can pick me up for work, you can see where I live!" She giggled as they stepped out of the building, feeling happier than she had in ages.  
  
Vaughn smiled, her happiness making his eyes light up. "Yeah, and now you won't hang up on me anymore when I call," he teased.  
  
"I did not hang up on you," she protested. "I hung up on Joey's Pizza." Weiss shook his head at that; sometimes the logic of a woman is incomprehensible.  
  
"Hm. I'll keep that in mind. No pizza," Vaughn replied with a grin as he unlocked the doors of his car. There were smiles on all their faces as they slid in.  
  
Sighing, she leaned against the leather seat and reached for his hand. "So this is it, huh? We finally made it, it's over?" she questioned with a note of uncertainty.  
  
"This is it, Sydney. You're finally free," he assured her and squeezed her hand.  
  
"We're finally free, Vaughn," she corrected with a soft smile. In reply, he simply pulled her hand to his lips and brushed a light kiss across her knuckles. 


End file.
